Carl Albert Helmecke was born in Braunschweig, Germany on January 30, 1890. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1902 and lived briefly in Norwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. The Helmecke family then moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Helmecke attended the University of Michigan graduating in 1912. He began work on his Ph.D. at Syracuse University, and later completed his degree at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1915, he accepted his first full-time teaching appointment at Upper Iowa University, and during World War I, he directed the military training program at Upper Iowa.
In 1920, he began teaching at Western Sate College in Gunnison, Colorado, where he remained until 1955. While at Gunnison, Helmecke took a sabbatical during the 1937-1938 school year and served as an exchanged professor at the University of Berlin. Upon retiring at Gunnison, Carl moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, and taught for the next seven years at Del Mar College, retiring for the second time in 1962. He continued to teach in the Corpus Christi area at Incarnate Word Academy Christopher College, and the University of Corpus Christi. In 1975, at the age of 85, Carl ended his formal teaching career. He died on June 8, 1984 in Denison, Texas.
From the guide to the Carl Albert Helmecke Papers, 1898-1984, 1937-1938, (University of Cincinnati, Archives and Rare Books Library)
